


1,400 lightyears

by kuron_10



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Astronomy, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, two nerds in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-06-29 04:59:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19823035
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuron_10/pseuds/kuron_10
Summary: The Horsehead Nebula is a small dark nebula in the constellation Orion, a place that always had and always will have a special meaning to Curtis.





	1,400 lightyears

**Author's Note:**

> The idea has not left me for months, so I finally wrote it down.
> 
> Dedicated to one of the most precious friend out there, who always supports me, and listens to my daily rants. Thank you for being a friend.
> 
> The same warning as usually applies. 
> 
> Don't like, don't read. 
> 
> If you dislike the pairing Shiro and Curtis, please close the tab right away. Then this story is simply not for you.

Shiro leant forward to be able to look out of that small shuttle that he was currently sitting in. He knew where they were going, yet he was still kind of disappointed. He knew it would just be a dark spot in space and yet it would have been nice if there had been anything special. Some kind of hint. But no, just darkness. 

“We have arrived”, Curtis said, carefully letting his fingers glide over the interface of the space shuttle, “These are the coordinates you gave me.”

“Mmh”, Shiro said, leaning back for a moment and closing his eyes. Indeed, they were here. A single point in space.

“Okay, now I just need to…”, Shiro hesitated before letting his left fingers brush across the display carefully. The ship beeped, moved a bit, beeped again. Made a small jump. More beeping.  
“Maybe you should just tell your nav tech what you want to do?” Curtis suggested, holding onto his seat, "Before you break the ship and we end up floating through space?"

"I am not breaking anything, I know exactly what I am doing", Shiro muttered, though he had to admit it had been a long time since he last flew a pod at this size. He was used to piloting the Atlas, not some small tiny ship. The ship finally turned it's nose. Checking the coordinates again, Shiro seemed satisfied. Curtis still frowned, but remained from offering his help again.

“Done”, Shiro said, finally letting himself fall back in his chair, “So… have you got any idea where we are?”

“Takashi, are you alright? You haven't hit your head, have you?” Curtis asked a bit worried, “You have been strange all morning already. And now it is getting worse...”  
“I’m fine, really”, Shiro said, “Just a bit nervous… you'll soon understand. Please, just play along now. Do you know where we are?”

Curtis did not avert his eyes immediately. He looked at him, kind of worried and suspicious, before finally turning his head to the display. “We are at LDN 1630, in the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex right now.”  
Shiro nodded slowly, “What do you know about this part of space?”

“We are south of Alnitak”, Curtis said pointing to the triple star system ahead of them, “Alnitak Aa is a hot blue supergiant, one of the most prominent stars. It is 33 times as massive as the sun and has a diameter 20 times greater. It is about 21.000 times brighter than the sun and…”

Shiro cleared his throat, “Let’s focus on where we are here, not on Alnitak.”

Curtis frowned, “Well, we are in the middle of a dark cloud of dust and gas…” He hesitated.  
“From earth’s view we are currently at the horsehead nebula, a dark nebula that resembles the head of a horse, first recorded in 1888 by Fleming.”

[](https://imgbb.com/)  
“You surely know that well”, Shiro praised him.

“I do”, Curtis smiled softly, “As a kid I used to love the horsehead nebula.”

“Mmh”, Shiro knew that already.

Curtis finally seemed to understand why they came here. It was his past that Shiro wanted to know. “As a kid I loved the night sky. Whenever I could, I would spend the nights at my grandparent’s house, because they lived on the countryside and I could watch the stars at night. In the city with my parents, I could never see them. Even though I knew the stars were still there, I felt kind of lonely at night. At my grandparents I could look straight into the starry sky from my bed. It felt like a magical world, all those stars, all those worlds above my head. On my 10th birthday I got a telescope. I remember the first time I saw the horsehead nebula through it; it looked nothing like the pictures on the internet, even upside down, and yet I felt so immensely proud. I loved the stars so much. I spent hours in the garden, looking up at the starry sky and drawing star maps.”

“Star maps?”

Curtis laughed as he turned to Shiro, “I even sent some to the Garrison! All I did was paint tiny little dots on a piece of squared paper. I thought one day an astronaut would knock at my door and say, ‘Thank you, Curtis! Your map saved us out there!’ I couldn’t think that there were celestial maps already in use.”

Shiro smiled at his boyfriend. He could imagine tiny little Curtis, drawing his tiny maps and dreaming about the big world above his head. “You always knew you wanted to be a navigator?” Shiro wondered.

“Kind of”, Curtis felt the wave of nostalgia rush over him, “I do not know why I always felt drawn to space. Not like a fighter, not like a discoverer, not like a diplomat. I just wanted to see all those stars. Create more maps.”

“Do you know what lies in this direction?” Shiro asked, pointing straight ahead. 

Curtis looked at the display, “The Milky Way.”

“Somewhere over there is our home planet”, Shiro said, “However… we do not see it the way it is right now, do we? What’s the distance?”

“1,400 lightyears”, Curtis said, “So the light we see from the Milky Way was emitted 1,400 years ago.”

“1,400 years ago”, Shiro repeated, “Sadly we are 1,380 years too early to see him.”  
“See whom?”

“You”, Shiro said, “The 10-year-old you, who stands in the garden and looks up to us right now.”

Curtis looked at Shiro, silently. His emotions were running high.

“I have to admit I already knew the story about your past”, Shiro finally said, “Veronica told me. I asked her if there was any place in space that you would like to see, and she told me that you had a poster of the horsehead nebula in your room at the Garrison. She told me that you had a special connection to this place. That as a young boy, you would always look up to the sky with your telescope and wave at this place in space, because you somehow felt that…”  
“It was special”, Curtis finished the sentence. 

He had tears in his eyes.  
“I didn’t think she would still remember”, Curtis said, “But yes. I had this poster on the wall, because I always felt a strange connection to it.”

“It doesn’t look that special though”, Shiro said as he looked outside, “There are some stars being born around us, but I was hoping that something very special was right here.”

Curtis shook his head, “I think it is beautiful. For so long I was all over there, looking up here to this very spot in the night sky and now I can look back. It's like an never-ending circle.”

“You know, this talking about time and space… it’s confusing, even for me”, Shiro admitted, “To think that when we look at the earth now, it’s so far away that it’s in the past. Time seems so steady usually, but here it fails us.”  
“Well, actually it’s not that steady. The light takes 8 minutes to travel from the sun to earth. We are just so far away that it takes 1,400 years. 8 minutes are not long in a human life, but 1,400 years are. However in the case of the universe, 1,400 years are nothing.”

“But somewhere between this place and the earth the light meets, doesn’t it”, Shiro said, “And the tiny little Curtis is somehow directly looking at us right now.”

Curtis smiled, “Somewhere in between here and there, yes… there exists a place in time and space when my 10-year-old self sees this right now.”

“I don’t know where this place is”, Shiro said, “I mean, I am sure you could calculate it, but… I am already content with being able to deliver this message to little Curtis.”  
“Which message?” Curtis asked.

Shiro smiled as he leaned closer to the window, “Hey, little Curtis. Thank you for looking up to this place so often. I know that for you it is just a dark cloud, but right now, for me it is everything. Please, listen to what I want to tell you. Never stop dreaming. Never stop drawing your maps. Because one day it will lead you right to this place with me. I might not be able to knock at your door just like in your vision, but I am an astronaut and my life often depends on the maps you draw. Thank you, you have saved me.”  
“Takashi”, Curtis whispered touched by his words. 

Shiro took a deep breath, “And now, little Curtis, I need you to lend me your strength. Please, never forget that this moment will exist in your future. Never forget that this moment in time will happen, right here at the horsehead nebula when I will ask your future-self to marry me.”

When he turned to Curtis, he already saw Curtis’ eyes filled with tears. 

“I know this is not perfect”, Shiro said, “We are both wearing space suits and I cannot give you the ring or kiss you, I cannot kneel in front of you and it might have been a stupid idea in the first place, but…”

“Yes”, Curtis suddenly blurted out.

Shiro was taken aback, “Yes, it was a stupid idea?”  
“No!” Curtis exclaimed.  
“Your answer is no?” 

Curtis burst into laughter, “No, my answer is not no! I... I am sorry, I am so sorry, I just… I just couldn’t wait anymore… Please, just hurry up and ask already so that I can finally say yes.”  
Shiro smiled with relief, “Okay…” He carefully took Curtis hand, even if they both were wearing their space suits. Curtis already had tears floating through his helmet and Shiro felt his own slowly dripping from his eyes. 

“Curtis, will you marry me?”  
“Yes!”

Shiro gladly drew Curtis into his arms, “Gosh, I’ve been so nervous all day… I was really worried you would say no.”  
“Stupid, I would never say no.”  
“You always said you were happy with how things were”, Shiro explained, “I was kind of worried you did not want them to change.”

Curtis laughed, “I meant I was happy being by your side. Married or not, as long as I can be with you, I am happy.”  
“So am I.”  
For a short time, they did not speak; just held each other tightly, letting their hearts and minds proceed what had just happened.

“You were wrong about one thing though”, Curtis whispered still hugging Shiro tightly, “You said there is nothing special out there. I disagree strongly. This place is special. Even if it is not out there, it is in here. It is the most precious place in outerspace and will forever be in my heart.”  
“Maybe little Curtis already knew this; maybe somehow this feeling already reached you, even though it has happened in your future when you were looking up at this place. It takes 1,400 years for the light to travel this far, but who knows how fast feelings and emotions travel through time and space”, Shiro said, “Maybe this is why this place was always so special to you.”  
“Hmm, maybe”, Curtis said before slowly sitting up straight again, “Is it okay if we stay here for a bit longer? I want to enjoy this moment as long as possible. I want to watch the Milky Way in the distant.”

“Of course”, Shiro said, finally having all that pressure off his chest, “I also would like to enjoy it a bit more; I want to remember it for the rest of my life. Next time we’ll be here, more stars will have already been born and the nebula might be gone.”

“It’s okay though”, Curtis said smiling, “Until this light we are currently emitting reaches earth, we still have got 1,400 years after all.”

“Pidge would love this, but I’m getting a headache of all that time and space talk. My brain is turning into a pretzel”, Shiro laughed, “But I do know one thing about time. I want to spend the rest of my time with you.”

“So do I”, Curtis answered.

**Author's Note:**

> Image and information taken from Wikipedia, because even though I love astronomy, I sadly had not the mathematical skills to study it. So all my knowledge comes from looking it up online.


End file.
